Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue Association

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Keeping Your Cat Happy Indoors

Statistics show the average lifespan of an indoor cat is 12-20 years compared to only 1-5 years for an outdoor cat. This is why at VOKRA we firmly believe keeping your cats strictly indoors will lead to a long, healthly life for your beloved pet and fewer worrisome nights and vet bills after a cat goes missing, is injured or even worse.

Many cats love to stay indoors and are never happier than when padding around the house. Yet sometimes your cat may become less content, which can be distressing both for you and your pet. When a cat isn’t 100% happy they can show it in a number of ways. For example, your cat may become ill or simply more lethargic than usual.

It perhaps doesn’t surprise many of you that your cat likes to be in control! And when they don’t feel in control in their environment this can lead to unhappiness. One simple way you can keep your cat comfortable in its environment is by keeping to a routine in your interactions with them. This can be by feeding them at the same time each day and even by trying to play with them at the same time.

Cats also need their senses stimulated to keep them happy. While many readers will already use catnip, there are also a number of other herbs that could provide a little interest and variation for your cat. For those of you whose cat isn’t partial to catnip, cat thyme may prove a useful substitute.

Enriching your cat’s life with toys is also a fun way to keep them happy. Unfortunately this can get expensive as cats tend to grow bored of toys pretty quickly, so why not try to enrich their lives by making some easy to create toys and puzzles? This is a great, cheap way of adding variation to your cat’s day to day life.

Hopefully this quick guide will give you some ideas to enrich your cat’s lives: